In the final season before the seismic conference shift and 12-team playoff, Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffalo obviously were the story of Week 1 in college football, but what has happened to the Clemson program?

The once-great Tigers under Dabo Swinney, who was widely considered the successor to Nick Saban when he retires from Alabama, lost decisively to Duke on Monday night, leaving their fans worried.

Even though Clemson went a combined 31-8 in the three seasons following their 2019 national championship, the No. 9 Tigers (their Coaches’ Poll ranking before the debacle at Duke) look like they’re a far cry from their heyday. They twice failed to win the ACC Atlantic during that span and lost two bowl games, including the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl against Iowa State.

• The debut of Penn State’s sophomore phenom Drew Allar as QB1 mostly delivered as promised against West Virginia. With the plethora of talent on the Nittany Lions’ roster — despite some kicking woes that need to be addressed — this season will be James Franklin’s biggest test as both an on-field coach and in the week of preparation before a big game.

• Tennessee romped over Virginia 49-13, but it was the Vols’ defense that might have been the real story.

Meanwhile, former UT coach Butch Jones’s Arkansas State squad lost 73-0 to Oklahoma. Jones was consoled on the sideline by safety Justin Parks on the sideline.

• Florida State appears to be back, while LSU has some self-evaluation to do.

• Merely adding the word “objectively” before an adjective doesn’t necessarily make it so (“objectively true,” “objectively false” or “objectively credible,” for example).

• Who’s your dark horse to make the NFL playoffs this year? Mine is the New Orleans Saints, now that they’ve acquired David Carr to play quarterback. If their defense holds its own in the NFC South, he might give them just enough on offense.

• Did Kenneth Branagh buy the movie rights to all of Agatha Christie’s novels? After directing “Murder on the Orient Express” six years ago, he has offered up “Death on the Nile” and, now, “A Haunting in Venice.”

I’ve always thought he was overrated, living off his roles in Shakespearean theater and the fact his name sounds very upstanding Berkshire British: Sir Kenneth Braaahhnah.

• Here’s a story of Jimmy Buffet and Bono, along with Bono’s family and others, being shot at by Jamaican police, who mistook Buffet’s seaplane for one smuggling marijuana. (Imagine, Jamaica was cracking down on ganja?)

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